What do forums still have to offer?

[AdamCrock]

Btw. Where is Valka D 'Ur ? You know ... the Cat lady ? Where is she ?

 

[Gorbles]

These "young'uns" do not know what "less rules, less moderation" looked like in the usenet days.

Depends how young each poster thinks counts as a "young'un" these days 😂

Usenet and IRC aren't even that far apart historically. Both are now decades-old, far older than the time that separates each of their creation(s). It's all about the community. I've seen as bad flamewars on forums as I have on Discord as I have on some of my oldest and most lawless IRC server communities.

I've been on forums where people were temp banned as a form of reputation. I've seen people treat being kicked from IRC channels as a right of passage. This culture was embedded in the community, and not really relevant to the actual tools being used. That's the rub I think.

 

[Kyriakos]

Depends how young each poster thinks counts as a "young'un" these days 😂

Usenet and IRC aren't even that far apart historically. Both are now decades-old, far older than the time that separates each of their creation(s). It's all about the community. I've seen as bad flamewars on forums as I have on Discord as I have on some of my oldest and most lawless IRC server communities.

I've been on forums where people were temp banned as a form of reputation. I've seen people treat being kicked from IRC channels as a right of passage. This culture was embedded in the community, and not really relevant to the actual tools being used. That's the rub I think.

Irc was nice. I recall (in the bigger channels) bots running quiz games (since you couldn't realistically continue a discussion in the main chat).

 

[Grendeldef]

IRC is/was nice but I used it only with very small groups of people - very handy for that before every application seems to have similar features built-in.

I like forums as I prefer the pace over something more hands-on type of conversation. Nothing actually prevents quick interactions but being away for a day or two is not a death sentence. When the crowd size reaches critical mass I'll became a passive viewer instead of an (more or less) active participant.
For me they still serve a meaningful purpose. Go CFC Go.

 

[Kyriakos]

IRC is/was nice but I used it only with very small groups of people - very handy for that before every application seems to have similar features built-in.

I like forums as I prefer the pace over something more hands-on type of conversation. Nothing actually prevents quick interactions but being away for a day or two is not a death sentence. When the crowd size reaches critical mass I'll became a passive viewer instead of an (more or less) active participant.
For me they still serve a meaningful purpose. Go CFC Go.

I still recall bits of discussions I had on the Yahoo Books & Literature (or something like that) chat client. And that was back in university...

It was still the wild west era of internet chat, though. Pretty common back then for almost everyone in any client to be a teen or near that, and things escalated pretty fast with flaming

"Whatever, go write something about this chat room, lol"
"I can't, you are in it"

 

[Grendeldef]

Yeah, excrement happens in all avenues of human communication. I remember the times when Unix' Talk was cool form of communication and I also use teletext daily given that YLE's one is superior to anything else I've seen; SVT's is decent. Form example news in Latin aren't that common elsewhere. I also prefer SMS over calling in most cases - each to their own I guess.

 

[Michkov]

I havn't really found anything that has the permanence of a forum/BBS. I mean I can jump on here and find discussions from 10-15 years ago, fully index and searchable. Trying to do the same on FB, Twitter, or Discord is met with immediate failure. Anything older than days to a month and it might as well be gone from the internet.